A Few Thoughts
1.) This is such a strange game. Last night, everything reversed on the Twins in the span of about 30 minutes, and it went from a great night to a really horrible night. Today, fate did an about face and decided to just pretend that yesterday never happened. The Twins picked up a win (although things were frighteningly close against the Royals, as they continued to audition for "giant killer of 2006"), and the Tigers lost to the Yanks. But the best news of all was that, despite making another comeback agains the Devil Rays, the White Sox blew the lead and lost today's game. The result? The Twins find themselves within 1/2 game of Chicago and 5 games of Detroit entering September.
2.) There was some thought that the Twins would make roster moves today in order to make players eligible for the post-season roster, but that was never likely and now appears not to be happening at all, according to the Twins website. The reason this wasn't likely is that there exists a loophole allowing a team to replace a player on the disabled list with pretty much anyone that they want to. With Shannon Stewart (and possibly Francisco Liriano) on the DL, the Twins have at least one spot that they can mess around with later. As a result, there simply is no pressure on the Twins to make a move today. And really, they wouldn't want to anyway; their playoff roster is going to look a lot like their current active roster, with one probable difference being the addition of Chris Heintz and the subtraction of Willie Eyre. Hopefully the Twins make the playoffs and get a chance to prove me right.
3.) Rosters expand as early as tomorrow, but as I've said in a few previous posts, I don't expect the Twins to do much as far as calling up players is concerned until after the minor league season is over. The one almost certain exception is Scott Baker, who the Twins stated yesterday would probably be asked to take Brad Radke's start on Saturday against the Yankees. The scary thing? We're going to be throwing Carlos Silva, Scott Baker, and Matt Garza into the teeth of the Yankees at YANKEE STADIUM. The Twins need to survive one of these games, and I'll be very happy.
4.) September is a big month for Carlos Silva. The Twins hold an option on his contract for next season, and he needs to show some toughness to even have a chance of being back. The only thing in his favor right now is that with Radke's almost certain retirement, the rotation will be Santana, Liriano, and then a bunch of young guys (probably Garza, Bonser, and Baker, with a free agent maybe replacing one of those). As a result, there may be some pressure to keep Silva around as a "veteran presence." I hope that's not the case; the Twins could get any number of players capable of giving the Twins at least as much as Silva has on the free agent market, and I don't necessarily think a Santana-Liriano-Garza-Bonser-Baker rotation would be so horrible, so long as Garza and Bonser pitched like they have been recently, and so long as we got ANYTHING out of Baker. So, stay tuned on this one, as it marks one of the interesting decisions facing the Twins immediately after the season is over. Of course, the Torii Hunter fiasco remains by far the most interesting bit of post-season drama that will be resolved sometime in October or November.
2.) There was some thought that the Twins would make roster moves today in order to make players eligible for the post-season roster, but that was never likely and now appears not to be happening at all, according to the Twins website. The reason this wasn't likely is that there exists a loophole allowing a team to replace a player on the disabled list with pretty much anyone that they want to. With Shannon Stewart (and possibly Francisco Liriano) on the DL, the Twins have at least one spot that they can mess around with later. As a result, there simply is no pressure on the Twins to make a move today. And really, they wouldn't want to anyway; their playoff roster is going to look a lot like their current active roster, with one probable difference being the addition of Chris Heintz and the subtraction of Willie Eyre. Hopefully the Twins make the playoffs and get a chance to prove me right.
3.) Rosters expand as early as tomorrow, but as I've said in a few previous posts, I don't expect the Twins to do much as far as calling up players is concerned until after the minor league season is over. The one almost certain exception is Scott Baker, who the Twins stated yesterday would probably be asked to take Brad Radke's start on Saturday against the Yankees. The scary thing? We're going to be throwing Carlos Silva, Scott Baker, and Matt Garza into the teeth of the Yankees at YANKEE STADIUM. The Twins need to survive one of these games, and I'll be very happy.
4.) September is a big month for Carlos Silva. The Twins hold an option on his contract for next season, and he needs to show some toughness to even have a chance of being back. The only thing in his favor right now is that with Radke's almost certain retirement, the rotation will be Santana, Liriano, and then a bunch of young guys (probably Garza, Bonser, and Baker, with a free agent maybe replacing one of those). As a result, there may be some pressure to keep Silva around as a "veteran presence." I hope that's not the case; the Twins could get any number of players capable of giving the Twins at least as much as Silva has on the free agent market, and I don't necessarily think a Santana-Liriano-Garza-Bonser-Baker rotation would be so horrible, so long as Garza and Bonser pitched like they have been recently, and so long as we got ANYTHING out of Baker. So, stay tuned on this one, as it marks one of the interesting decisions facing the Twins immediately after the season is over. Of course, the Torii Hunter fiasco remains by far the most interesting bit of post-season drama that will be resolved sometime in October or November.
posted by JST @ Thursday, August 31, 2006
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